With You
by Cloudsinmycoffee9
Summary: Modern AU - Robert takes Cora to America for their 30-something wedding anniversary.


"God almighty - this is an awful waste of time."

"Robert, please. It's only been a few minutes."

"Don't ever let me complain about having help again. Surely an industrious country like America would have come up with a more efficient way to handle this idling about."

"It's no one's fault, darling. It's a holiday weekend - people are on vacation, stores will be closed for a day, and so everyone is stocking up, just like we are."

"Hmmph," he huffed, looking about. "Actually, this could all be considered _your_ fault. Really, Cora, how many gallons of orange juice does one need? Otherwise we could have used that '15 items or less' line over there," he teased, gesturing towards the shopping cart, where Cora had indeed selected three gallons of freshly squeezed orange juice, nestled securely among the piles of food.

She feigned indignation. "I beg your pardon. _I'm_ not the one who decided that in order to truly have an American experience, he needed to learn how to properly barbecue and spent an hour discussing the merits of each type of cut with the butcher, while the store filled with even more customers, mind you, before finally selecting _eight_ steaks and then declaring he needed to buy nearly every kind of marinade and sauce available," she replied, arching a brow and holding back a smile as she, too, pointed to the contents of the cart.

Their first two nights in the States had been spent at her mother's house, and Martha Levinson had held an extravagant neighborhood barbecue to welcome the vacationing couple. Robert had been fascinated with the fancy grill and the delicious meats from it, spending most of his time talking to the hired catering crew to learn more. Afterwards, when they had relocated to the beach cottage Robert had rented as a surprise for her as a wedding anniversary present, it had been rather sweet to watch Robert get excited about learning how to barbecue a steak on his own with the grill provided at the vacation home; looking up instructions online, calling her helpless brother for tips, who had suggested hiring someone or ordering takeout. Robert had even gone so far as to practice building his charcoal pyramid last night before he was sure of his abilities and felt ready to purchase the meat.

And after two days of eating at restaurants for all meals, they both had keenly felt the need for the convenience of eating at home - both for practicality and for privacy's sake. Cora was secretly a little worried about cooking for the both of them for the next several days, but was also thrilled at the prospect of cooking for her husband - something she rarely got to do. She was excited at the adventure of it all and even more so that Robert seemed to share her enthusiasm.

They had ventured to the one of the many gourmet grocery stores that catered to the tourist crowd, which had turned into a bit of an adventure for the couple, as back home in England at Downton Abbey they had hired help that did most of the shopping and certainly the preparing of food. They had spent a few hours wandering the aisles; Robert managing to find the small "international" section and complaining loudly about the lack of anything truly English there. They spent an hour finding and sampling fresh fruit he'd never seen before in England, and picking up various things they might need for their planned stay at the romantic beach side cottage.

Now they stood in line, grocery cart overflowing (Robert, being worried they might not have enough food and have to come shopping again, had simply decided to buy everything they saw that they liked, which included condiments, some tea towels Cora had cooed over, and a package of fireworks that she had begged him to purchase), waiting with the other customers, who were visibly more patient than the head of the Crawley family was at the moment.

"Again, that is all your fault, my dear."

"Excuse me?"

"You see, certain activities that _someone_ keeps insisting on have caused me to have an even greater appetite than usual - "

"Robert!" she warned as he pulled her closer to him and kissed her cheek under the brim of her wide straw sun hat.

"And as I'm desperately hoping I won't be inconvenienced again to leave the very private privacy of our private cottage, I'm simply trying to purchase adequate provisions so I don't starve to death at the hands of my beautiful, clever, but absolutely insatiable wife," he continued, running his hands down her back to pinch at her bottom.

She swatted away at his hands and tried to scowl at him, failing miserably as she took a respectable step back. "Well. I'd be happy to not have to leave again, either, but let me remind you that it was _you_ who was so astonished at the lack of a settee in a 'so-called proper cottage' that you insisted every available surface be sampled to find an adequate replacement for . . . such activities as require a settee."

He grinned at her, and she couldn't help but melt back into his arms, looking into his blue eyes and knowing that the memories of the previous day and night were flashing through his mind as they were replaying in hers.

"Although," she continued, lowering her voice so that he had to lean in even more to hear her, "despite rigorous efforts made by both parties, I'm not sure I've found a satisfactory replacement. Are _you_ , darling?" she added, batting her eyelashes just a bit and threading her fingers through the greying hair at the nape of his neck, smiling slowly as she felt his hips shift towards hers and watching as his eyes drifted from her own down to her mouth, then her neck as he reached a hand up to trace along her collarbone, exposed as it was in the halter top sundress her mother had insisted upon buying for her before they left for the trip. Cora had felt she was too old for such an outfit, but the look on Robert's face when he'd stumbled unannounced into their bedroom while she was trying it on had convinced her to pack it.

"Cora - you look so lovely that I'm ready to sample you upon the surface of the conveyor belt if you keep up this kind of talk," he growled, leaning in again to kiss at her neck.

She pulled back, laughing. "Robert, my love, as foreign as you consider America to be, might I remind you that they do speak English here, and anyone in line with us at the moment can understand what you are suggesting? Including the poor clerk?" she whispered, glancing behind them. "Do you see that girl there? I think she might be watching us."

Robert looked up quickly and noted a young woman with earphones in, nodding her head to the music, carrying a bottle of wine and small carton of ice cream, eyeing them with some interest. He shrugged. "It's important for young people to know that middle-aged couples are still capable of being wildly in love and having terrific fun with each other," he asserted, pushing their cart forward a bit in the line, and winding an arm around her back to bring her with him. "Although she looks about Mary's age, and what is it she's always complaining we show?"

"PDA, darling."

"What does that mean exactly?"

"Public displays of affection," Cora blushed.

"Well, we are in America, Cora, _your_ America. And no one for miles around has even the slightest idea who we are. And my wife looks absolutely ravishing. Am I not allowed a few affectionate liberties in the country that claims it invented liberty itself?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "All these years you and Mama have thrown 'American' at me like an insult, and now we're here and you're twisting it to fit your fancy. How convenient." She turned her face from him and pouted for only a moment before his arms were around her again.

"Cora, darling. I love every part of you. All the American parts. And you've had quite a bit of English in you as well these last thirty-something years - "

"ROBERT!" she gasped, turning to face him, unable to suppress a giggle. "What has gotten into you?"

But he only waggled his eyebrows at her. " - and I can only see more of that in your very near future. Anyway. Kiss me, my darling girl. For I've the best part of America, I'm sure. And that is you."

She sighed but smiled at him, reaching up her outside hand to brush his cheek before leaning in to kiss him. "Incorrigible man," she whispered, reaching her arm around his waist now to propel them forward in the line.

Feeling a slight buzzing at her side, she reached into her purse to pull out her phone. "Oh look, darling, Sybbie's sent us a video!" She felt Robert lean closer to her side, and risking the ears of those in line around them, pressed play.

""Hi Donk! Hi Granny! ("tell them to have a nice time, love.") Have a nice time in love!" her sweet voice and face brought smiles to both Cora and Robert, who looked at each other and felt the moment between them.

"So much like her mother," Robert finally breathed, pressing a quick kiss to Cora's forehead.

"It was sweet of Tom to send that. And so lovely of them to have come all that way to see us for such a short time. I do hope they enjoyed the barbeque."

"Your mother has a way of making everyone enjoy themselves, dearest. Even I had a good time, and that's saying something. And she clearly gets on with Sybbie."

Cora sighed and leaned into the support of his shoulder. "I do hope they continue to see each other often. I know how you all feel about my mother but - "

"She's family, Cora," Robert said softly. "Your mother, Sybbie, Tom, Marigold, Cousin Isobel, your extremely impertinent brother - " Cora chuckled for a moment. "We're all family, and that's all that matters to me."

Cora smiled crookedly down at her phone, Sybbie's face still captured in still life on the screen. "It means so much to hear you say so, dearest. And it means so much to me that you've brought me here."

Hearing her say that made Robert think back to the moment she'd unwrapped the small box bearing her name under the Christmas tree, with tickets to America, a printed picture from the internet of the beach cottage Edith had helped him to rent out, and a small American flag keychain Mary had brought back as a kind of funny present on her last visit to America for New York Fashion Week. Cora had looked from item to item before glancing up nervously to her daughters and then her husband.

"I don't understand, Robert. What does this - "

"I'm taking you to America. As a Christmas present, as an anniversary present. And I'm taking you during the Fourth of July. We'll visit Tom and Sybbie, your own mother will host us, we shall see fireworks and eat your wretched hotdogs and cotton candy -" that was as far as he'd gotten before she'd completely forgotten herself and jumped into his arms.

"Thank you, darling. Thank you," she'd whispered into his ear.

And in that moment, he'd felt the enormity of her decision to leave her family and home behind to love him and live with him in England. He'd felt the traditions she'd missed, the places she'd longed for. They'd taken the girls to visit twice on extended holidays when they were little, but time had seemed to slip away faster than they could keep up with it. Once Mary and then Edith had turned of age and started to head to university, it seemed that no amount of cajoling from their parents could persuade them into a family trip to a tiny beach town their mother recalled so fondly. And then after Sybil and Matthew's deaths and the other illnesses and moments of conflict that always seemed at the doorstep of tearing their family apart, it had seemed almost impossible to imagine a time when they could all go to America.

But the last year had changed things for Robert - he had seen the danger in taking things for granted, especially in taking his wife for granted - and so as Christmas had approached, he had resolved to trust the management of the family estate, which was now much more a historical site and tourist destination, to his very capable daughter, and to surprise his wife with a much-deserved holiday. If it couldn't be with the whole family, it should at least be a vacation for just the two of them. As he'd booked the first class tickets, trying to secretly scrounge around in her dresser drawers for her passport, it had struck him that it had been far too long since the two of them had taken a moment to themselves, let alone a long weekend or a two-week trip as he was proposing.

And if anyone in the world deserved a week away from duty and appearances and the weight of a world she had been coerced into, it was the woman he had married and come to love and treasure above anything else in this world.

And as he looked at her now, at his side in a small grocery store in Rhode Island, whatever that was, a broad hat sitting upon her braided hair, a dress exposing more skin than he normally ever saw outside of their bedroom, a few freckles dancing upon her shoulders where she had missed the mark with sunscreen, and cornflower blue eyes staring up at him adoringly, he knew that the best decisions he'd ever made in his life began with her.

She slipped her phone back in her purse and wrapped both arms around his middle. "I can't tell you enough how much it means to me - how excited I've been and how excited I am to have you _completely_ to myself."

"Well, that sounds promising," he agreed, tipping her chin up to press their lips together and feeling her smile against his.

"What was it you said to me that we were to do on this trip, Robert darling? Stuff the estate, stuff the children?" she asked, grinning up at him. For a moment, lost in her eyes, so full of love for him, so empty of the pain and regrets of the past, and simply filled with joy, he forgot the people around them, the place they were at, and wanted nothing more than to lose himself in the pleasures of her mouth, her gaze upon him, her arms around him, and the things he could do to hear more of his name from her lips.

"Exactly," he agreed, drawing his hands up to cup her shoulder blades and push her body closer to his.

"Hmm. Grandchildren weren't an explicit part of that proposal. so I guess you don't have to punish me for that particular transgression," she added thoughtfully, a twinkle in her eye.

"Oh, dearest, please don't suggest punishing you in a public place such as this. You don't know what you do to me," he nearly groaned into her ear, leaning forward and once again brushing his hands against her bottom.

She only laughed and pushed their cart a little closer to the check out. "Well, my darling husband, you'll simply have to be satisfied with my undivided attention for the next 10 days or so - "

"Looking forward to it."

" - as you've had for the better part of nearly 40 years now."

"Exactly," he nodded sharply in agreement.

"What's that?"

"The better parts - the best - of the last 30-odd years - were every moment we spent together, Cora. Every moment that I can recall that has been worthy and good has been because I am with you."

She stopped in her tracks and turned her gaze upon him quickly, her mouth open just a little, her hand on her hat as if she had been about to pull it off to shake out her hair. Her collarbones stood out against the sweeping lines of the dark blue dress he thanked God his mother-in-law had insisted upon. His hands were busy pushing a cart with a faulty wheel full of food enough to feed a small village, a garbled voice over the loudspeaker announced some sort of sale, and time seemed to stand still for just a moment as she looked at him.

"Next!" the clerk called, urging their cart forward to be next in line.

"Do you mean that? Do you really mean all of that?" she asked softly.

"Of course I do. I'm sorry if I've never said such things enough that this comes as a surprise, Cora. But I do. I do mean it."

She did pull off her hat then and leaned into him for a moment. When she braved her eyes to look up at his, he could see the small evidence of tears she was fighting.

"I love you, too," was all she said, and returned the tender smile spreading across his face.

Suddenly they were loading the various items they had selected during their lengthy shopping adventure onto the conveyor belt. Time seemed to move more slowly than usual as they brushed casually against each other, working quickly to empty the contents of their cart unto the checkout stand. The beeping of the checker scanning the items filled the air and Robert sneaked a quick look at his wife again. She was smiling down at her hands.

He loaded up their cart with the bags, turning the faulty wheel to the exit doors to locate their rental car - a bright red sports vehicle he had selected on whim. As they approached it's doors, he pulled to a stop and reached out to Cora's arm to bring her to him.

"Are you alright, dearest?" he asked anxiously.

She looked down for a moment, and he noticed a small tear escape one eye before she looked back up at him, eyes full of adoration.

"I'm better than alright, my love." She smiled and joined their hands together before drawing them to her chest and looking back up at him with a smile that melted all his anxiety and only filled him with the deepest reassurance of their love. "I'm better than that because . . . because I'm all my best when I'm with you."

She kissed him softly, then more fully upon the lips, and let him lead her to her side of the car.


End file.
